Viva Le Diva
by xX-Misty
Summary: It's Eurovision 1998 and half the team at Fenchurch CID are stuck providing security for the event while the other half are watching from the comfort of their couches. Either way, it's a time to contemplate life, the future and the seventeen years that passed since the day Alex first arrived. Just a little mini-fic to mark 4 years since Ashes to Ashes ended and my first fic began.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: So I may be on hiatus right now but I couldn't bear to miss the anniversary of the end of Ashes to Ashes. 4 years ago the last episode was just ending, and my upset over aspects of those final moments inspired my first fic two days later. And now look where I am.**_

_**This snippet fit into canon in my world; the date, 9**__**th**__** May 1998. When Lucy and I watched Eurovision a couple of weeks ago I found myself really annoyed that I hadn't included the show taking place in the UK in 1998 in my timeline, and so the idea for this two part anniversary snippet was born. I hope you enjoy it – and if you're at all confused you should search for 'Dana International eurovision dress rehearsal' and 'Guildo Eurovision' on youtube!**_

_**~xXx~**_

"The poor man. He's going to have a lifelong phobia of parrots now."

"Not my fault."

"_You_ made him _frisk_ her!"

"_I_ wasn't going to frisk it, didn't know what I was going to find!"

"_It?!_ Gene, be respectful, that's insensitive!"

"I'm not _being_ insensitive, I thought it was a giant bloody _parrot! _I don't care what bits she's had sawn off, wear that many feathers for yer dress rehearsal and it's a one-way ticket to the local petshop."

Alex sighed and leaned back against the wall as myriad performers passed them by on their way to get ready for the performance of their lives. She couldn't help but feel as though they'd drawn the short straw. She'd have given anything to be curled up on the couch watching the camp production from home instead of stuck providing security on the night.

"So how come we are lumbered babysitting half of Europe while everyone else is enjoying Robin's home-cooked pizza and waiting to spot us in the background, point and laugh?"

Gene pulled his flask from his pocket and shrugged.

"Beats me, Bolly, must have pissed off Terry Wogan in a previous life."

Alex pouted a little as Gene illicitly downed a few mouthfuls of alcohol and pulled a face as though it had stripped the lining from his throat.

"It could be worse," she said, "some of those people must have paid a fortune for tickets. We get to watch every act up close and personal."

"We're their babysitters, not a pair of bloody dentists."

"You're not really helping matters, Gene," Alex accused, "You could at least _try_ to get into the spirit of things!"

"I _am_," Gene insisted.

"How?" Alex asked incredulously and Gene held up his flask.

"Got a drop of liquor from every one of the twenty five competing nations in here," he said somewhat proudly. Alex frowned suspiciously, took the flask from his hand and quickly tested his claim. Choking a little from the power of the alcohol, she wiped her lips and handed it back to Gene.

"God, you weren't kidding, were you?" she spluttered, already feeling her head spinning slightly.

"I'm going to market this to the EU," Gene told her, "it's my bit towards promoting world peace." He shrugged, "everyone'll be too pissed to organise wars."

Alex sighed deeply and brushed her fringe away from her face.

"You should make the most of tonight," she told him, "we won't see the likes of this again."

"Too true," Gene mumbled, "next time we win the sodding thing I'm booking the whole of May off, annual leave."

"You won't have an opportunity, we won't _be_ winning again," Alex told him. She was surprised to see him throw her a slightly distraught glance. "It's true," she continued, "this year; second place. Next year, lower. Five years from now we're taking home _nil points _and Terry Wogan's threatening to throw in the towel."

Gene narrowed his eyes slightly. He took a long swig from his flask and gasped quietly before he finally replied;

"Shoebury taught me there's such a thing as a spoiler warning, you know Bols."

"Oh come on, Gene, you should be used to spoilers by now," Alex told him, "as much as I might try not to, sometimes things –" she shrugged a little guiltily, "slip out."

"Like your top cobblers when you forgot to do yer zip up," Gene commented, but Alex wasn't really listening.

"Do you know what will feel really strange?" she asked thoughtfully.

Gene nodded.

"Yes, Bolly, but you said we weren't doing that any more after the last time when you couldn't sit down for a week."

Alex seemed oblivious to his words, deep in thought as she contemplated her realisation. She tapped her fingers softly against the wall as she continued;

"When I run out of familiar years," she said, "right now everything I go through… I've seen before. It's a repeat. But then one day, come two thousand and eight, I'll reach the end of the line and suddenly I'm into the unknown. Blank pages. New territory. I won't know anything that's about to happen. Or anything that _has_ happened, the first time around. _Well_," she tilted her head to one side, ever deeper in contemplation with a little, distant smile playing on her lips, "I suppose I _did_ have a slight taste of two thousand and eleven… but that doesn't count. Not really. I suppose –"

"Bolly?"

Alex finally stopped talking long enough to turn to Gene.

"Hmm?"

A potent flask appeared under her nose.

"Stick this in your trap and give yer lips a well-deserved rest," Gene demanded, "not to mention that over-fried think-pan of yours. Blimey, woman, this is supposed to be the most mind-numbing night of the year, not the Royal Institution's Christmas bloody _lectures!"_

With a slightly annoyed glance Alex took the flask and sipped from it. She found her slight irritation fading fast as the warming mix of European tipples worked wonders. She supposed she was rambling, again. But then again, that was just who she was. She smiled to herself. Some things hadn't changed since she arrived in 1981. Now here she was, seventeen years on. She was still as headstrong, wordy and opinionated as always even though in so many ways she, and her life, had changed. The night that Gene had led her to the Railways Arms and left her there she thought everything was over. She could never have imagined how one leap of faith would change her entire existence.

"_For the better,"_ she whispered to herself.

"What?"

Alex glanced at Gene, unaware she'd spoken out loud. A tiny smile crept onto her face. There was Gene, a few more wrinkles and a few longer words in his vocabulary but he was the same Gene Hunt she'd met all those years ago. For what it was worth, she wouldn't have it any other way. Her smile grew a little broader as she said,

"Nothing."

"No, you were flapping yer lips again."

"I was doing no such thing!"

"I _saw_ them!"

"I was making a mere observation to myself!" Alex protested with a smile.

"I've got something you can observe later," Gene began but before he could get too far into his innuendo a panicked Jake ran in their direction, screeching to a halt in front of them.

"_Guv!"_ he cried, "_Ma'am!"_

"What?" Alex asked, her heart-rate rising from the urgent tone that greeted them.

"Don't tell me that parrot's gone into a flap?" Gene asked, pocketing his flask.

"No, it's Guildo," Jake cried breathlessly, "His trousers have escaped!"

With a look of panic between them, Alex's eyes met Gene's.

"That's not good," she gasped.

"Trousers _that_ colour shouldn't be allowed to exist in captivity, let alone in the wild," Gene mumbled just as a scream came from somewhere nearby.

"_That's them! That's the trousers!"_ Jake cried.

"Then _quick!_ _After_ them!" Alex's feet began to move in the direction of the escaped legwear with Gene following hot on her tail.

As the two DCIs chased the mutant fabric around the stage, barrelling into the show's erstwhile host, making an enemy of Terry Wogan for life in the process, it was just another day on the job for a woman who'd skipped back and forth through time and a man who'd led so many to fill their potential. The rose and the rough diamond had faced every hardship imaginable but they'd come through every last one because they'd had each other, as friends, as colleagues and as lovers. They were as unbreakable now as they'd ever been.

No kind of Euro-hell was going to change that.

**To Be Continued**

**~xXx~**

_**A/N: So 4 years ago, Ashes to Ashes came to an end. It was only right that this part of the mini-fic should focus on the stars of the show itself. In two days' time it will be 4 years since I wrote the first chapter of Out of the Window and there will be a second part, focusing on the characters I've created and come to love. Thank you for reading!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2**

"No cheesy nibbles?"

Robin stared at Simon's downtrodden expression as he laid two large plates on the table in front of them and shook his head in disbelief.

"Man, I've cooked three pizzas, there's no room in the oven for cheesy nibbles," he said, slightly annoyed.

"But you _always_ made cheesy nibbles for Eurovision," Simon protested

"Yeah, well," Robin threw a tea towel over his shoulder and marched back toward the kitchen, "I always breathed in and out like a living person during Eurovision too but it's time to break with tradition."

Simon pulled a face.

"Spoilsport," he mumbled as Kim cried out,

"_Rob, hurry up! You're going to miss your favourite piece of music!"_

"_I'm coming, I'm coming,"_ Robin called back as he hurried back from the kitchen with the third and final pizza in his hands, slipping onto the couch just in time to see the EBU introduction music sparking up on the screen in front of them.

The familiar logo graced the screen while the three friends hummed along, sounding somewhat ridiculous but not caring in the slightest. As the logo cleared and the contest began all three felt a shiver of anticipation. It wasn't as though the result was going to be a surprise, it wasn't as though they didn't know what to expect from the next few hours of European musical trash but there was something in the air; the feeling of something new. Kim was the first to put it into words.

"Did you ever think the three of us would all be sitting, watching Eurovision together?" she asked.

"Nope," Simon piped up as he lifted up a melty, cheesy slice of pizza, "number of times you slagged it off I thought we'd have to tie you down with ten tons of rope to get you to watch it."

"Yeah, _well,"_ Kim sighed, "it's grown on me since those days."

She exchanged a little smile with Simon, both remembering a night that – for Kim – had occurred some ten years previously while for Simon it had been only two; A much younger Kim, distressed at Simon's attempts to pin her down and force her to watch that year's concert with him

"_But it's Gina G's year!"_ he'd protested, as though that had made any difference to her.

The previous year had been one Eurovision song contest that _none_ of them had watched. Coming less than 48 hours after Kim's arrival in Gene's world and Keats's night of ultimate terror. By the time the contest rolled around Simon was unconscious, Robin traumatised and Kim was… well, _evil._

"Can't you eat a little more quietly?" she asked as Simon munched his way through a second slice, "I can't hear Wogan's sarcasm over that racket!"

Simon made an offended noise of distress as Robin giggled at Kim's comment and tried to respond but a mouthful of thick crust and cheese prevented him from getting a word in before Robin spoke up.

"How come you're so into it this year?" he asked.

"No reason," Kim said a little guiltily.

"There has to be some reason," Robin said, raising an eyebrow, "the way you're biting your lip suggests either you've done something naughty or you're doing an impression of me."

Kim's guilty look grew a little before she dropped her head and admitted with a sigh,

"I _may_ have put a small amount of money on Dana International to win."

Expecting the others to chastise her, she braced herself for a mocking lecture but much to her surprise Robin replied,

"Me too."

"_And_ me," Simon nodded.

"What?" Kim stared at Simon, somewhat shocked, "after your encounter the other night I thought Dana International was the last person you'd want to think about!"

"One little black eye doesn't mean I'll turn down the chance to make a hefty profit," Simon informed her, "and besides, it wasn't all bad," he looked away, his face flushing, "might have stolen a chunk of her rehearsal outfit. Planted it in Bammo's locker. I'm going to tell everyone it's part of his new drag act, _Bambino."_

"_Simon!"_ Robin cried, his laughter overtaking the admonishment.

"He _deserves_ it!" Simon protested, "have you any idea how many water balloons I've been hit with in the last two years?"

"No, I totally agree with you," Robin told him, "I just…" he shrugged, "think you could have come up with a better name for his drag act, that's all."

"How about the Fenchurch Filly?" Kim volunteered.

"Or Blushing Bamboo?" Robin Suggested.

"_Guys,"_ Simon cried, "he isn't really _doing_ a drag act, you know! We don't need to think about it this much!"

"Christ, we're only trying to help," Kim protested as Robin pulled a face and they exchanged a glance that started with guilt and ended with giggles.

"Can we just watch the contest?" Simon sighed, hoping that his friends would drop the subject. He knew he had some work to do on his scheme, but this wasn't the time to do it. Tonight was the time for sharing pizza with friends, mocking twenty five European musical acts an enjoying one of Robin's excellent home-cooked pizzas.

Silence fell as the contest got underway, with Terry Wogan and Ulrika Johnsson presenting and myriad performers preparing for the night of their lives. Amongst the chomping of the pizza and the mocking laughter that accompanied every new act Simon took the time to take in exactly how lucky he felt. That wasn't something he ever thought he'd feel. Two and a half years earlier he'd been ripped from his idyllic life and thrust into a job and a role he had no interest in pursuing. He'd lost the love of his life, he'd lost all that he'd worked towards, he lost everything he held dear, and things only went downhill from there.

But now here he was, sitting in Robin's lounge, such close friends with a man he'd once loved with all his heart. And then there was Kim, the best friend he'd missed for so long, the 'little sister' he'd lost when she's awoken from her coma and thought he would never see again. Life wasn't perfect, far from it, but it was a far cry from that first day, stepping out of a car crash and into the mid-nineties. Even more than that, it was a world away from the mid-eighties nightmare he'd spent mere days after a server had threatened to call an end to his life.

1998 Fenchurch might not have been the time or place that the three of them would have chosen to spend their days but it wasn't hell on earth either. Far from it. They had love, friendship and pizza. Really, what more could anyone want?

Simon reached out and lifted the beer in front of him.

"I want to make a toast," he told them.

"Terry Wogan doesn't deserve one," Kim told him, "not for _that_ haircut."

"I'm not making it to him," Simon told them. With a brief glance between them, Kim and Robin lifted their drinks and waited for Simon to continue.

"So what are we drinking to?" Robin asked eventually.

Simon looked from one to the other. He felt his eyes starting to tear up unexpectedly. A year ago life had been so different. He was at death's door. _Death beyond death._ Robin and Kim's lives had been torn apart. It seemed as though things would never get better. And yet, there they were, hanging out together as though nothing had ever happened.

"_To us,"_ he whispered, "and an unbreakable friendship."

Kim felt her lips twitch into a smile.

"That's cheesy," she said.

"So's the pizza."

Kim rolled her eyes, but she was smiling still. The same thoughts had been going through her own mind for much of the evening.

"To an unbreakable friendship," she whispered, her heart skipping a beat as she added in a whisper, "_and to absent friends."_

A silent smile passed between all three. It was tinged with nostalgia and a little bit of sadness. All had left people behind on the other side; family, friends, colleagues. There were people back in the land of the living they would never see again, and others they'd seen leave their bizarre world by way of the Railway Arms and its affiliated establishments. Their existence was a strange one and they'd had so many goodbyes.

Simon's mind wandered to a dark haired, bespectacled man. It had been months since their last encounter and he wasn't sure if he would ever see him again. The _friend_ part of the toast was a stretch even for Simon but Keats's absence was notable in any case and he couldn't stop himself from wondering where the man he couldn't quite forget was right then.

"_Absent friends,"_ he whispered, three glasses and bottles clinking in the air.

As Simon, Robin and Kim downed their drinks and wolfed down their pizzas while trying to ignore the rogue pair of turquoise trousers dashing across the screen they talked and laughed and cheered and celebrated as though it was the most natural thing in the world, yet one year ago everything had been so very different.

Despite the trials and traumas that had befallen all three in the past few years, moments like this made them feel glad to be alive. Well of a fashion.

"Here's to a great night," Robin said, raising his glass again.

Kim grinned.

"And to many successful bets for years to come," she winked.

**The End**

**~xXx~**

_**A/N: Four years ago today I spent the entire day writing what I thought was going to be a one-shot. It quickly grew into an entire fic, then a trilogy and then... well, it all went a little haywire. I kind of created a whole world which became very real to me And then, somehow, that world started infiltrating my real world. Many amazing things have happened as a result of creating this world and I can't help but feel somewhat emotional as I look back to the early roots of my storyline, growing from my need to give Alex a happier ending, four years ago today.**_

_**To everyone who had followed my series, those who read from the start and those who have recently picked up the thread and are catching up right now, I can't thank you enough for staying with it and for following Simon, Robin and Kim in their journey through a very unusual afterlife, as well as Alex and Gene as their time extended beyond their 2010 goodbye.**_

_**Right now I'm feeling really inspired and attached to these characters so even though I'm still on hiatus more or less I'm hoping to write a chapter or two in the next few weeks :)**_


End file.
